Bzzzzzzzz.

Honey Thief.

Last month we talked about what makes the perfect summer drink and used the Daisy de Santiago as an example. This time I present my own take on the warm weather drink in the form of the Honey Thief. If you recall our requirements for such a drink are coldness, hydration, simplicity and light floral and herbal flavours. I wanted to use an amaro in this and one of the lightest, summeriest amari is Montenegro; replete with citrus, herbs and spices yet still balanced and easy-going. I combined it with a slightly larger quantity of gin to create a split base for our summery concoction. The choice of gin is yours to make as long as you steer clear of any of the sweeter and/or flavoured varieties. No need to go too pricey either as those subtleties might be lost against the herbal punch of the Montenegro. The latter, I feel I should point out is actually an Italian product and was (re)named to honour Princess Elena of Montenegro who married some Italian dude in 1896. Anyway, base: check. It’s summer so we want some citrus in there and I’m going for lime even though lemon juice would work just as well. Before squeezing cut a nice long strip of the peel off to use as our garnish. We have some sweetness in our base from the Montenegro already so we’ll boost that with some honey syrup. In all my recipes I use a ratio of three parts runny honey to one part very hot water stirred to combine. Not difficult, even on holiday. Now here have some choices depending on whether we are at home or on vacation without access to all our tools. In the former case let’s shake with ice and strain into an iced glass for maximum chillage otherwise feel free to just build in the glass with plenty of ice. The last little trick is one I borrowed from my own Tijuana Tonic and that is to lengthen our drink with Indian tonic instead of soda, the bitterness of which brings us into perfect bitter/sour/sweet balance while adding a little quinine bite. All to be stirred gently together in a tall glass and garnished with our left-over citrus peel.

Imbibe, enjoy and chillax!

Honey Thief.

1.25oz / 37ml gin of choice (see text).

0.75oz / 22ml Amaro Montenegro.

1oz / 30ml fresh lime juice.

0.75oz / 22ml honey syrup (see text).

Shake with ice, strain into an ice filled Collins glass and top up with 2-3oz / 60-90ml tonic water. Stir gently and garnish with a lime twist.

Can also be built in the glass.

Toast 80s Scottish white-boy soulsters, Hipsway.